Top 3 Reasons Why Your Body Shape Changes As You Age
Do body shapes change with age? Yes, they do. Whatever the shape your body is in right now, treasure it because chances are, it won’t last a lifetime.
There are seven common body shapes- neat hourglass, spread hourglass, pear, apple, lean column, rectangle, and inverted triangle.
Women who are in their adolescence stage, until their 20s, mostly have the neat hourglass shape. The 30s, on the other hand, develop a spread hourglass, while the 50s expand to the apple shape.
The sad reality is, only 20 percent of women in the country feel comfortable with their body shapes.
The remaining 80 percent are on unflattering clothes to cover up their shapes. The diversity of shapes explains why most designer clothes fit but not look as good as others.
1. The skeletal system, which gives shape to the body, deforms.
The skeletal system dictates the broadness of the pelvis, the width of shoulder bones, the distance between the pelvis and rib cage, and the shape of the rib cage.
When a woman is pregnant, the rib cage widens because of relaxing hormone. The expansion is one of the reasons why post pregnancy, women lose their defined waist.
2. The distribution of fat tissues changes through time.
The human body houses considerable amount of fat. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that in men, the healthy body fat amount is 8-20 percent amongst 20-39 years old and 11-22 percent amongst 40-59 years old.
In women, on the other hand, the healthy body fat is 21-33 percent amongst 20-39 years and 23-34 percent amongst 40-59 years.
The body weight then becomes dependent on the number of consumed calories. When women eat more than their capacity to burn off, weight gain is sure to happen.
Without exercise, the extra weight is stored in the body in the form of fats instead of muscles. Over time, an increased proportion of fats in the body weight increases.
The change in body composition is also able to accelerate the fat production. The significant decrease of the estrogen levels during menopause also dictates the shift of fat tissues to the midsection rather than below the waist.
The belly fat eventually renders an apple-shaped body, which is often associated with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. …
3. An estimated loss of 1% of muscle mass happens after 30 years old
There is 40-50 percent of skeletal muscles in the body. Sarcopenia, the loss of muscle strength and muscular tissues, is primarily caused by lack of physical activities.
Since muscles burn less fats than calories, muscles somehow contribute to the overall health, weight, strength, and risk for disabilities. To minimize the percentage of muscle loss, it is best to remain physically active.
Resistance exercises, for instance, can help maintain muscle mass. In fact, seniors in their 90s have shown improved strength with resistance training.
Can you prevent the change in body shape?
The change in body shape is natural as people age, especially in women. While the change cannot be avoided, lifestyle choices determine the speed of the process.
The composition of lean tissues, fats, water, and bones in the body changes through age because the muscles, kidney, liver and other organs lose cells.
Bones, on the other hand, lose minerals eventually making them less dense. While all these are happening, body fat also increases constantly in the body’s central region.
Moreover, there is also a tendency to decrease in height. After reaching 40, people usually lose an estimated one-half inch every 10 years.
The progression of height loss is accelerated after 70. To help prevent severe height loss, a healthy diet, active lifestyle, and treating bone loss are highly recommended.
A woman’s lifestyle choices affect the speed of the aging process. There are ways to minimize the age-related body changes, including:
- Doing regular exercise
- Maintaining healthy lifestyle
- Eating a healthy diet like vegetables, fruits, and whole grains
- Limiting alcohol use
- Avoiding tobacco products
- Saying no to illicit drugs
The body undergoes several changes throughout a lifetime- transforming both men and women- from heart, hair, skin, nails, bones, and lungs.
For women, whether they began with a pear or apple-shaped physique, the overall body shape shifts with time.
The metamorphosis is attributed to many factors, which are categorized in two- those that women cannot control and those that can be manipulated.
The rate by which the body shape transforms are directly associated with lifestyle factors like diet, smoking, and exercise.
The body’s diverse composition primarily muscles, bones, fats, and water shift through time and all are relative proportions of the weight that is produced by each of the components.
Typically, it happens with age regardless of whether there is weight gain or none. According to science, with age, muscle mass, lean tissues, and mineral bone density decrease, while fat deposits increase.
